I wanted to say what a good job everyone is doing. I am really enjoying reading the posts! I know many of you haven't played here before and I'm genuinely impressed with the quality of the writing and interaction.
Alak - You are being such a diligent founder that you managed to get in your response before I could even slip you a pm.
There was just one problem I wanted to address. One of my jobs as Shire Mod is to make sure that we follow the rules in the Red Book of Westmarch.
Memory of Trees - You wrote an extremely lively and fun post. However, your initial instincts were right - you crossed over the line a bit. I'm going to use your post to show what can be a problem. Please don't feel badly about this. My experience has been that the very best writers sometimes have trouble in this way because they are overflowing with interesting ideas and are itching to write! We have a lot of strong writers on this game and I think a discussion like this may be helpful for all of us.
One of the hardest things in a game is to know how and when you can talk or act for another poster. You have to play with someone a long time, before you can be completely comfortable you're representing them accurately. Even then, there are mistakes. (Just ask me -- I'm an expert on such mistakes!) Here is the guideline from the Redbook:
Quote:
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Godding: Depicting someone else's character in a way they would not act. On those rare occasions that you speak for another character, be very careful to do it in a way that does not misrepresent them or do anything significant without the permission of the person who owns that character.
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In general, don't speak for anyone other than your own character in an extended discussion unless that poster has given you prior permission. An occasional, neutral comment is alright but nothing more than that. This is especially true when the discussion involves any disagreement. For example, May could get up on top of the table and rant and rave at her parents as long as she wants to! What she can't do is respond back for them in any way. They have to do that for themselves. Otherwise, it's too easy to misrepresent a character that's not your own.
For example, Henry Chubb has been staunchly opposed to leaving Bree in both his posts, yet here he responds in a very different way when asked about whether the family should go....“It’s not a half-bad idea, with it getting so crowded ‘round here,”
It's even tricky describing the actions of another character. Fighting and such are definitely out, but even little things can be tricky. I noticed that Regin had his father sitting in the wagon in his last post. Normally that would be fine, but Fordim responded and asked him to edit, since his character was on a pony. Witch_Queen said she didn't mind sitting next to clucking chickens....! But if she had, Regin would have had to edit that too. That kind of description and interaction is common in a game. If you see a problem with how someone uses your character, politely ask them to edit on the discussion thread or in a pm.
I hope this helps. The main thing is to be a bit cautious when you write and willing to edit if another poster asks you to do that.
Memory of Trees -- please revise your last post to comply with the guidelines --- as great and high spirited as it is!
If anyone has questions about this, contact me on the thread or by pm.